Inspiring Travel Writing from Fiona Dunlop
It was those exotic sea-journeys between Australia and England that did it. At the impressionable age of 6, Fiona Dunlop cruised around the world twice over while her parents pondered which hemisphere to live in. The bug was planted and her personal compass was set.
Although now based in London, Fiona has lived for long periods in Paris, southern France, Italy and Spain. After working in the art-world, she moved into travel, writing guides to India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Mexico, Costa Rica and southern Africa as well as the old world - Paris, Spain and Portugal (the latter two for National Geographic and, just published, spainchic). A strong epicurean streak steered her towards writing New Tapas - an investigation into Spain's top tapas-bars and she is now researching a food and travel book on North Africa. Another major interest - interior design - led to an illustrated book, In the Asian style.
Between writing books and taking travel-snaps, Fiona contributes to the Financial Times, Sunday Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and various magazines in the UK and Europe. She still dreams about living in the other hemisphere though... See her website at www.fionadunlop.com
Although now based in London, Fiona has lived for long periods in Paris, southern France, Italy and Spain. After working in the art-world, she moved into travel, writing guides to India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Mexico, Costa Rica and southern Africa as well as the old world - Paris, Spain and Portugal (the latter two for National Geographic and, just published, spainchic). A strong epicurean streak steered her towards writing New Tapas - an investigation into Spain's top tapas-bars and she is now researching a food and travel book on North Africa. Another major interest - interior design - led to an illustrated book, In the Asian style.
Between writing books and taking travel-snaps, Fiona contributes to the Financial Times, Sunday Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and various magazines in the UK and Europe. She still dreams about living in the other hemisphere though... See her website at www.fionadunlop.com
Articles by Fiona Dunlop
-
Blue mornings
|
Fiona Dunlop
|
Guatemala
Lago de Atitlan: Morning mists over this stunning Guatemalan lake take on a cool blue tinge, creating a luminous veil over fishermen’s canoes and cloud-shrouded volcanoes. Each Mayan villages around the lake has a different identity and...
-
A Sulawesi snorkel
|
Fiona Dunlop
|
Indonesia
A little-known cluster of islands named Togian is flung into the northern bay of Sulawesi (Indonesia). Underwater is mesmerising, the deserted island beaches are blinding white, the Bajaus in their sea-shacks welcoming – unforgettable.
-
Amazon Awakening
|
Fiona Dunlop
|
Ecuador
|
Amazon Basin
It’s hard to beat a week spent chugging along the Amazon in an open-sided boat, living on fresh fish and oranges, falling asleep in a hammock to the calls of howler monkey and waking to the sounds of the jungle dawn.
-
Bologna: Grassa Rossa Dotta
|
Fiona Dunlop
|
Italy
|
Emilia-Romagna
|
Bologna
How to travel with a salmon is the title of a recent book of essays by Umberto Eco, arguably the University of Bologna’s most famous professor. However the mythical title of my recent return trip from Bologna would be more like How to travel...
-
The Kashmir Conundrum
|
Fiona Dunlop
|
India
|
Kashmir
Given the choice of a holiday in Madrid or in Srinagar (Kashmir), which would you go for? Quite probably you would be sorely tempted by the latter for its scenic splendour tinged with colonial nostalgia. Yet if, like the majority of the population,...
-
Between a Rock and a Wild Place
|
Fiona Dunlop
|
Libya
“Everything you imagine - everything you can’t imagine” is the convoluted claim of a classic poster depicting rippling sand dunes. It is one of a slew of slogans dreamed up by the People’s Committee for Tourism since Libya...
-
Close Encounters with Cod
|
Fiona Dunlop
|
Australia
|
Great Barrier Reef
|
Lizard Island
There is no shortage of lizards on the eponymous island of the Great Barrier Reef, including sand monitors, those enormous primeval-looking reptiles. But I'm going to Lizard Island to meet another kind of giant. More precisely, a Potato Cod - a...
-
Mali with or without Timbuktu
|
Fiona Dunlop
|
Mali
|
Niger River
|
Timbuktou
If you’re after cosseted travelling conditions, spa treatment, luxury safari lodges, gourmet feeds and chocolates on your pillow, then Mali is not for you. Even wildlife is not really on the agenda, bar a few hippos and caiman lurking in the Niger...
-
In Search of the Mexican Utopia
|
Fiona Dunlop
|
Mexico
|
other areas of Mexico
|
Patzcuaro
In the distance, pinpoints of light appear around the contours of a dark centre. I am in the state of Michoacan, in western Mexico, and this is the Lago de Patzcuaro, the liquid heart of some 20 lakeside villages. Back in the 1540s, they inspired a...
-
Riad Norma
|
Fiona Dunlop
|
Morocco
|
Northern Morocco
|
Fez
It’s a small-scale riad and, yes, it’s down an uninspiring dead-end street of the medina where cats prowl through the garbage and boys kick footballs. Such a setting is pretty common in the burgeoning riad scene of Marrakesh and of Fez. But the...